Ethereal

"Banish your fears."

The Tau Ethereal Caste is surrounded by mystery, but is believed to be the de facto leaders of the Tau Empire. Although not trained as warriors, they do sometimes join the Fire Caste on the front lines to oversee the battle. Seeing as the Ethereals are the most important figures in the Tau society, such an event generally raises the fighting spirit among the troops. However, the Ethereal can also provide more concrete support by lending his personal Shas'Ui Bodyguard to serve under the Tau Commander as well as providing bombing coordinates to the Air Caste. In addition, the Ethereal can detect infiltrated units.

Tactics

The Ethereal's primary purposes are to provide passive bonuses to Tau units and summon a free Shas'Ui Bodyguard squad. The presence of an Ethereal grants 200 extra HP and morale to every Tau unit and building, even Harbinger Drones and Snare Traps (only in Dark Crusade), which boosts most Tau units' health by more than 50%. Shas'Ui Bodyguard squads possess the longest base range of any infantry unit in the game and have extremely high durability.

The Air Caste Strike ability is powerful, but difficult to use. It takes a full 20 seconds for the strike to expand from its center to its edge, but it covers a tremendous ground area once it is fully spread out and functions very effectively at area denial for its duration.

The major challenge with Ethereals is to keep them alive. The best way to do this is to keep the Ethereal in your base, at the rear of your army, or hiding in a Devilfish Troop Carrier, although the latter option will disable his bonuses to the Tau army. The latter option is necessary against Imperial Guard, whose Vindicare Assassin can quickly eliminate the Ethereal. A holographic projection of your Ethereal can be used to draw fire while the real one makes an escape. The holograms can also be used as decoys to absorb damage, good candidates are Krootox, the Greater Knarloc and Hammerhead Gunships.
Another note is that holograms of Pathfinder Team can be useful too, as their shots still slow down the enemies that they hit, as well as also being useful as (temporary) detectors. The Ethereal is one of the only three units in the game that gain their keep whether in or out of battle, the other two being the Eldar's Avatar of Khaine and the Sisters' Living Saint.

Ethereals are also capable melee fighters as far as Tau go, but it is best that this only be a last resort due to their frailty and importance in providing a boon to Tau units, and the fact that if he dies, this will also severely weaken your forces.

Abilities

For The Greater Good

For The Greater Good

Requires

Nothing

Target Types

All friendly units and buildings

Range

0

Area of effect

Infinite

Cooldown time

Passive ability

Effects

An innate and passive ability that adds 200 health and morale to all Tau units except Snare Traps and Harbinger Drones (In Dark Crusade all units are affected). However, should the Ethereal be killed all friendly units and buildings within a radius of 150 suffer 100 points of physical damage, 500 morale damage, and don't call out their status for 10 seconds.

Holographic Projection

Holographic Projection

Hotkey: H

Requires

Nothing

Target Types

Any Tau squad or vehicle

Range

10

Area of effect

0

Cooldown time

45 s

Effects

Summons a holographic copy of the targeted unit. The copy's attacks do no damage and it takes triple damage from all weaponry, but take no morale damage. Most units have the same health and armor class as the copied unit (see above). Cloned units will automatically disappear after 60 seconds.

Air Caste Bombardment

Air Caste Bombardment

Hotkey: B

Requires

Nothing

Target Types

All

Range

40

Area of effect

30

Cooldown time

110 s

Effects

An orbiting Air Caste ship concentrates its weaponry onto the targeted location, providing destruction on a wide scale. Targets closer to the center of the blast suffer extra damage: area of effect 6, 200-300 damage with 200 minimum damage, 10 morale damage, same armor piercing as main blast. The blast takes 20 s to expand from the impact point to its maximum area of effect, throwing back infantry as it grows (30-55 force).